Should we back Blair for President?

Tony Blair has now more or less confirmed his ambition to become President of Europe but only on his terms, and only if the job comes with serious powers.

Blair appears popular among the EPP-aligned leaders

I can't quite decide whether this is a Good Thing. On the one hand, lots of people regard Blair as a shyster, and would see his elevation as sheer gravy trainery. On the other, there is no denying that, by Euro standards, he's about as charismatic as they come. Many in Brussels see him as the only man who might persuade the British that the EU was not inveterately hostile to their interests.

One thing that has so far not been widely reported, though, is that the main Euro-parties the Party of European Socialists and the European People's Party plan to hold informal primaries to decide on their candidates. And while Blair has support among the EPP-aligned leaders Silvio Berlusconi, Nicolas Sarkozy, Mariano Rajoy he is far less popular among the Socialists, who resent the warmth he showed their domestic opponents and despise his record over Iraq. One Spanish socialist minister, for example, unaware that his television mike was still recording, was overheard describing Blair as "un gilipollas integral" ("a complete d**khead").

All of which raises the intriguing possibility that Blair might end up standing, not as the Socialist candidate, but as the EPP candidate. His recent conversion won't have done him any harm. Many Continental socialist parties remain anti-clerical at heart, whereas many of the EPP member parties have, or at least recently had, a confessional base. Bruxelles vaut bien une messe.

How apt it would be if, shortly after expelling me, the EPP were to embrace Tony Blair. And yet I can't suppress the unworthy suspicion that Tony Blair has bought his candidacy bought it with our money, by surrendering the budget rebate. I do hope I'm wrong. For there is a nasty word for a man who sells his country.